Sefton is battling to cope with its biggest ever homeless crisis.
Officers say the local authority is facing the “highest demand for homelessness related support than it ever has”, due to the ongoing cost of living crisis.
Over the past years the number of households presenting as homeless has been over 200 per month.
Sefton is struggling to find enough temporary homes to look after them all.
The cost of providing nightly rate accommodation sourced from private sector providers over the past five financial years has risen from £178,000 in 2019/20 to £2,342,000 in 2023/24.
Next week, Sefton’s Cabinet will look at options into helping people in trouble.
Ideas include transforming three council owned buildings to create temporary accommodation.
Since August 2023 there has been a 67% increase in the number of households in temporary accommodation.
Consequently, Sefton Council has needed to source an increasing amount of accommodation from the private sector.
It is drawing up a strategy to procure good quality, furnished, and maintained accommodation for eligible homeless households.
In a report, Sefton Council’s Assistant Director Communities said:
“Sefton is currently facing its highest demand for homelessness related support than it ever has.
“Sefton is not alone in this, and these are pressures that all local authorities in the country are facing.
“Although many of the issues driving these homeless pressures are out of the council’s direct control there are several work streams that are progressing as quickly as possible to strengthen our ability to help residents in this situation.
“Sefton currently has a significant and growing need, and the cost of managing this need is increasing significantly.
“Homeless cases have significantly increased since the increase in the cost-of-living began in late 2021. Over the last 12 months the number of households presenting as homeless has consistently been greater than 200 per month.
“Although the Housing Options Team does everything they can to prevent residents from losing their home, in many instances Temporary Accommodation (TA) is required.
“Numbers requiring TA is such that it now exceeds the bed spaces available in the council owned homeless unit provision and through our homeless providers.
“Cases are therefore housed in a variety of locations at a significant cost to the council.
“The Local Government Association estimates that the total cost to local authorities nationally is £1.7bn per annum.
“In July 2023 it was widely reported in the national press that households accessing Local Authority temporary accommodation in England was at its highest since records began. The number of households being placed in temporary accommodation had risen by 10% in England for the year to July 2023.
“During July 2023 there was a spike in demand which saw Sefton’s highest number of households approach the Council for homelessness assistance. Although the following months of August, September and October were very high, they did not surpass the July figure.
“This increase in demand has also seen a spike in the number of people requiring temporary accommodation. At the beginning of August 2023, the number of eligible households accessing temporary accommodation was 107 however by the beginning of November this had risen to 179, a 67% increase.”
The cost of providing nightly rate accommodation from private sector providers, which has risen to £2,342,000 in 2023/24, includes self-contained, for example a flat or home, and hotels.
Some of the expenditure is recoverable from Housing Benefit, however this only accounts for a fraction of the cost.
Sefton says that although the cost of providing this accommodation is through government grants this is not sustainable should the current level of demand continue.
Sefton Council’s Emergency Temporary Accommodation Project is now seeking to redevelop three vacant council properties to deliver 16 additional self-contained units of accommodation.
The local authority’s Sefton Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy 2024-2029 recently highlighted that there is ‘increasing incidence of homelessness, including both ‘hidden’ homelessness and demand for services, a lack of supply of affordable social housing and the impact of changes within the private rented housing market, which are placing more households at risk of homelessness, and making it very difficult for those facing homelessness to access new tenancies.’
One of the recommendations in the strategy is to ‘improve the quality of temporary and emergency provision’, which Sefton’s procurement exercise will contribute to addressing.
Subject to Cabinet approval next week, it is proposed that officers begin the development of a detailed temporary accommodation procurement pack setting out the timescales, costs, and scope of developing the future provision of temporary accommodation.
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